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To all whom it may concernr UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. A

- HENRY s. OROOKE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

i SIGN.

. I j I n v SFEGIFICATION formirlgpart of Letters Patent No.'258,896, dated June 6, 1882. Y J Application filed April 1, 1881. (No model.) I

Be it known that I, HENRY S. ORooKE,

I citizen of the United States, residing in the city of New York, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signs, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying d rawings,forming a part of the. same.

. The object of this invention is the production of an ornamental sign from metal foil.

As is well understood, commercial tin-foil consists of a lamina or very thin plate of the metal, which is usually produced by reducinga'body of the same by a rolling operation accomplished by pressure-rollers. he product is a thin limp sheet of ductile metal having a highly bright or polished surface, which, by the embossing operation,is rendered highly ornamental. Such an article of commerce is provided with a highly artistic surface, well adapted by reason of its beauty as the foundation surface or mat of a sign; and sincesuch material is well adapted to display brilliant colors upon its surface, and as it is desirable that the letters or other ornamentation constituting a sign shall be as brilliant and lustrous as it is possible to make them, I have devised a mode of combining with ordinary rolled metal foil letters and other ornamental designs formed out of colored foil,- which designs are combined with the sheets of foil constituting the base of the sign by simple pressure, the result of which is that the metal composing the ornamental design is united to that composing the base, so as to produce a single homogeneous sheet, upon which the designs appear in the lustrous metallic color possessed by the colored foil.

To facilitate an understanding of the mode followed in producingthese signs, I have illustrated in the accompanying drawings, by Figure 1, a stencil-plate supposed to be made of a sheet of rigid material, in which a design consisting of the letters forming the word Care is delineated by removing portions of the body of said plate. In Fig. 2 I have illustrated a sheet of colored foil supposed to be mounted upon a sheet of paper, the body of which foil has been divided by lines that follow the said design Care, which dividing of the foil is supposed to have been accomplished bylayiug thestenoil-plate, Fig. 1, over the sheet of foil and using a needle or other sharp instrument to cut the foil by following the border edges of the design in the'stencilplate. Fig. 3 illustratesthe condition of the sheet of. foil, Fig. 2, when the portions of the foil embraced by the border-lines of the design have been removed. Fig. 4 illustrates the foil with design removed, as in Fig. 3, after having been placed over another sheet of foil and the two consolidated by pressure; and Fig. 5 illustrates an enlarged sectional elevation of Fig. 4, to show the relative positions of the two layers of foil to each other.

In carrying out this invention in its most economic manner I take a sheet, as 2, of common tin-foil, having its surface coated with any desired metallic color, which is slightly secured to a sheet, as 3=-say of paper to the surface of which it will only be temporarily held by the use of ordinary paste. After the same is dry I lay over such sheet of foil 2 a stencilplate, as 4, containing the design desired to be produced, and with a needle or other sharp instrument I cut the design through said foil, following the outlines of the ornamental design in said stencil-plate. I then remove that portion of the design embraced by the cut lines, as in Fig. 3, and their detach the sheet of foil 2 from the sheet of paper, 3, which sheet 2 will then be areproduction of the steneil-plate, and laying the sheet of foil now provided with the ornamentation upon a sheet of plain or'any color of foil, I pass the two sheets of foil between pressure-rollers, wherebysaid sheets are pressed together or combined by adhesion of their contact-surfaces as one homogeneous mass, the design produced by the holes in one sheet being filled or covered by the foil of the other sheet, thus makinga single continuous sheet of foil, portions of which contain the design in a contrasting color of foil, the whole being a single homogeneous sheet of metal, which may be attached to or mounted upon any supporting-base for use as a sign. In passing the same through the pressing-rollers any surfacefinish desired may be imparted to the foil by embossing, frosting,

or matting, according to the processes set forth in Letters Patent Nos. 227,495, 227,496, and 229,677.

Itisobvious that the letters or other designs removed from the colored foil may be laid upon the surface of the plain sheet of foil, if desired, and the two consolidated and caused to adhere by the pressing operation but it will be apparent that this mode necessitates nice adjustment of the parts and great carein the operation, and would be diflicult, therefore,to perform with that cheapness necessitated by the low price at which these signs must be sold. The various parts of the ornamental design may thus be produced in difi'erent colors, and the groundwork or supporting-layer ot' the foil may have its usual metal surface or be coated with one or more colorsin various parts, as fancy may dictate or occasion require. In all cases, however, the ornamentation appearing in colors that properly contrast or blend with the supporting-layer of foil.

What is claimed is 1. A sign composed of separate and contrastin g pieces of tin-foil united to form a homogeneous sheet, and having portions removed from one of the pieces so as to disclose the other, substantially as described.

2. The method of forming signs by remov HENRY S. CROOKE.

Witnesses:

CHAS. Dooaow, T. H. PALMER. 

